Various systems and methods have been developed for providing viewers of broadcast and cable television weather presentations with informative and accurate weather information. Typically, such systems provide a display of representations of weather phenomena, e.g., clouds, rain, storms, etc., overlaid on a map of a geographic area of interest. Such displays were originally created by drawing representations of weather phenomena, or placing pre-made weather phenomena symbols, on a physical map of an area of interest. The image of the map was then broadcast with a weather presenter positioned in front of the map to provide an explanation of the map display. Computer systems are now employed to facilitate the generation of such weather presentations, using computer-generated graphics and animation.
A typical computer-implemented system for preparing a weather report presentation will include detailed digital maps of geographic areas of interest stored for access by the computer. Weather information, such as satellite imagery and/or weather radar information, such as NEXRAD weather radar information provided by the government or live local radar data, is provided to the system. The system processes the received weather information that is then overlaid in graphical form on the digital maps to create a graphic display of the weather for a particular area of interest. The weather information received by the system may be processed to generate weather symbols, color contours, or other representations of the weather information that are overlaid on the digital maps to create the weather presentation. A series of such weather displays may be generated by the computer system, and played back in sequence to provide an animated image of the movement of weather phenomena through a geographic area. Such systems may provide an operator with various tools for selecting, e.g., the geographic location to be displayed, reference points to be displayed on the geographic map, e.g., cities, roads, borders, etc., the source of weather information to be displayed on the geographic map, e.g., satellite imagery or radar, and how the weather information will be presented, e.g., symbols, color contours, etc. An exemplary system and method for the preparation of graphical weather displays for broadcast as part of a weather report presentation, particularly for the preparation of weather displays that show the current and predicted path of severe weather, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,339,747, which is assigned to Weather Central, Inc., the assignee of the present application, the details of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Although a variety of different types of weather information are used to generate weather displays to be used as part of broadcast and other weather report presentations, not all of the currently available types of weather information typically are automatically processed for inclusion in such presentations. Some types of weather information are provided currently from their respective weather information sources in a form that is useful only to a trained meteorologist or other professional who can interpret the information as provided and then manually or orally incorporate the information into a broadcast weather report presentation. In other cases available weather information may be presented to viewers of a weather report presentation in a manner such that it is difficult for the typical viewer to understand the significance of the information or how the information relates to a particular interested viewer. An example of weather information that is currently available but not currently presented as a part of weather presentations in a form that is useful to most viewers, if at all, is real time lightning strike information.
An important part of any televised or other weather report presentation is the presentation of information related to storms or other severe weather conditions. Weather forecasters and presenters, therefore, closely watch storm developments, in order to present the best available information to viewers. When a storm starts generating lightning, the lightning alerts forecasters to watch the storm for other dangerous weather elements, e.g., heavy rain, hail, flash flooding, high winds, downbursts, and tornadoes, that often occur with electrified storms. Weather forecasters may, for example, use lightning strike information provided by the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) to determine whether a storm is generating lightning. (Other sources of lightning strike information also may be available and used for the purposes described. For example, the United States Precision Lightning Network (USPLN) provides similar lightning strike information that is available from Weather Decision Technologies, Inc. of Norman, Okla.) The NLDN consists of over one hundred remote, ground-based sensing stations located across the United States that instantaneously detect the unique electromagnetic signals given off when lightning strikes the earth's surface, and can distinguish between cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning strikes and filter out the former. These remote sensors send raw lightning strike detection data via a satellite-based communications network to a network control center operated by Vaisala, Inc. in Tucson, Ariz. Within seconds of a lightning strike, the network control center's central analyzers process information on the location, time, polarity, and amplitude of each strike. The lightning information is then communicated to users across the country. The NLDN system thus monitors and geolocates accurately the twenty to twenty five million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes that occur every year across the contiguous United States using a network the depends on precise waveform processing, global positioning system (GPS) time synchronization, high-speed signal processing, and wide-band peak gated magnetic direction finding techniques.
NLDN lightning strike data is accessible to subscribers through various DOS, Windows, or Unix based display and analytical software programs. Real-time lightning data may be received for display by such programs from the NLDN via satellite broadcast and dial-up telephone communications. USPLN lightning strike data is available from Weather Decision Technologies of Norman, Okla., via similar communication channels. High performance graphical systems designed for effective interpretation and analysis of lightning information currently are in use. Current systems display lightning strike data in a variety of ways. For example, individual lightning strikes may be indicated by small crosses or Xs overlaid on a graphical map display. The location of each detected lightning strike is represented on the map display by such a marker. Due to the plethora of lightning strikes that occur during a storm, however, the resulting display typically shows large clusters of lightning strike markers overlaid on a map. This provides a good representation of storm location and lightning strike density in general. However, for individual viewers of a weather report presentation it does not provide a very good representation of exactly where lightning is striking, and particularly of the relationship and distance from the strike to the viewer's home or place of work. Lightning data has also been displayed in contours of lightning strike density, to facilitate the identification of high-risk areas in general, and can be color-coded or animated to track developing storms. These methods of displaying lightning strike data are very useful for meteorologists and weather reporters who are watching storm development and providing generalized storm information in a generalized manner to the public. However, individual viewers of a weather presentation may find such presentations of lightning strike data to be of limited value, in that such presentations of lightning strike data do not bring home to the viewer in a personal way that individual lightning strikes may be occurring near the viewer's home or other location of interest.
What is desired, therefore, is an improved system and method for presenting weather phenomenon information, specifically lightning strike information, in a manner that is more easily understandable to viewers of televised and other weather report presentations. Such a presentation of lightning strike information should be easy to interpret by individual viewers in a manner such that a viewer can immediately understand the significance of the weather information being presented to the individual viewer's specific location of interest. Such lightning strike information preferably also may be presented to a user electronically in a personalized manner, e.g., via e-mail, cellular phone, etc., such that the user is made aware of nearby lightning strikes and/or the distance and location of lightning strikes from the user's current location or other location of interest (home, work, school, vacation home, etc.). By tracking the motion of lightning strike areas an advance warning system regarding a viewer's location or locations can be implemented.